Kitchen Garden Forum

I'm just getting to the end of my 1st season with my new greenhouse, tomatoes, peppers etc, just finishing ripening. So, big question, what shall I do next?

The greenhouse is unheated and no chance of heating it, but I'd love to be able to use it for something over the winter rather than just standing empty. Suggestions please

I leave mine empty, but not for long; my tomatoes and peppers will still be in for October at least, and the next year's will be sown in early Feb, along with trays of beetroot and rocket as baby leaf and pots of peas for their shoots, using heated propagators or a soil warming cable for a little warmth. For November through to February there is little light for growth even if you can provide warmth. Can be useful to protect potted bay trees, olives, etc though.

You can grow winter salads. No extra heat is required — it is sufficient just to be able to keep the weather off. I sow land cress, mizuna, corn salad, coriander (no, really), miner's lettuce / claytonia, mustards (particularly the Oriental varieties: Green-in-Snow, Red Giant and so on). They grow quite slowly, but sufficiently to keep you in welcome fresh greens through the worse of the weather, and I find that the types I've just listed combine very well on the plate to give you something really flavoursome.
You can also, for the next month, sow lettuce and mustards as micro-leaves in seed trays and flats. They will be finished by November, but they're rapid growing and a good stop-gap before the slower winter salads proper come on stream. There's a thread about them here.

Hi sandy

I agree 100% with Felix's suggestions.

Have a look at these threads -

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=10133

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=9564

I'd not noticed the pea shoots thread before, alan. I've grown pea shoots but I find that they don't prevail through the winter, nor indeed into the autumn from sowings made now. They tend to rot off before they make any progress. From late winter onwards, though, they are rocket-propelled, and delicious of course.

Like Tony's, our greenhouse gets a good clean out when the tomatoes, peppers and chillies have finished, any repairs are done and it's fumigated with a sulphur candle. Then I put in any overwintering plants like lilies, young cuttings, lemon verbena, bay tree, some parsley, mint, chives etc into the greenhouse and also potted up spring bulbs and a large, flat pot of violas because they smell so nice when the sun is shining on them!

I know that's not vegetables, but I have tried overwintering salads and they usually go mouldy, even with lots of ventilation, or are killed by the frost.

But then, in February, all the food growing starts again with a vengeance!

I am also coming to the end of my first year with the greenhouse.

How do you decide when the time is right to turn the remaining tomatoes into chutney, pick the last peppers and do the cleaning in order to move plants to be protected inside before the frosts arrive?

Good questions. Also, should I fumigate mine? It is on hard standing (no soil) and everything is grown in pots.

Sandy, I would.

It'll get rid of spores on the surfaces, I'd clean it first though, nylon brushover with appropriately diluted Jeyes fluid, inside & out, rinse, allow to ventilate and dry, then burn a sulphur candle with all vents shut. Leave for a day or so and make sure you air it a bit before working in there.

This treatment should deal with all sorts of moulds and pests, so evict any beneficial residents like frogs or toads to avoid harming them.

My reasoning is like Monika's - I have tried winter salads and found they grew very slowly and tended to go moldy, and provided a host for overwintering greenfly which, as someone who grows peppers and chillies, I really don't want. I would rather have the house clean for a fresh start in Feb.

Also, I don't know if it is just me, but ... I rarely feel like I want to eat salad in the middle of winter !

Alpines are another nice thing to have in the greenhouse over winter - they don't need any warmth but appreciate being dry. I always keep the lewisias in the greenhouse and they flower beautifully early in the year.

Sowed lots of salads in greenhouse yesterday. Included Corn Salad that hadn't germinated from an earlier sowing in cold frame. I have various packets of various ages but I couldn't remember what I had sown so I used a bit of everything. I couldn't help but notice that seeds were different shapes and sizes, is Corn Salad/Lamb's Lettuce all one thing or are there variations? My four packets were :
Franchi : Valeriana D'Olanda Seme Grosso - Lamb's Lettuce (2008 best before 2011)
Lidl : Corn Salad Volhart 2 (2007 best before 2009)
Wallis : Corn Salad Verte De Cambrai (2007)
Wallis : Corn Salad (2005)

Hi Geoff

Re. corn salad. The leaf shape and size as well as the seeds vary from variety to variety. I strongly suspect that the smaller leaved and seeded varieties are closer to the wild Valerianella locusta; the larger leaves and seeds are the result of selection over the centuries.

Thanks for that. I hadn't thought about varieties in Corn Salad - I should pay more attention when I read the packets! I'll have to see how different they are if I get something in each patch.

I think you can plantation winter salads such as mizuna, corn salad, coriander, land cress, and mustards which grow the very slowly. They all will be finished in November.